Beyond Our Lights and Shadows

Charism and Institution in the Church

Judith A. Merkle

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780567658234
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Theology

"Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying of hands by the council of elders" (1Tim. 4: 14). Members of the church today can comprehend Paul's sentiment to Timothy. While not all ordained, all baptized Christians have experienced the laying on of hands in baptism. They have been touched by that mysterious mix of charism, initiated into the Body of Christ through the Holy Spirit, as well as launched into life with Christ through the institution of the Church with all its concreteness, ambiguity, sinfulness and goodness. Through the lens of Christian theology, along with the sociology of Max Weber in his study of charism and institution in modern society, Judith A. Merkle analyzes the interaction and tautness between the concept of powerful grace through baptism and the institution in the life of the modern church. Weber asserts that freedom and creativity in modern society only become manifest within social relations. Since these highly valued modern experiences do not exist outside the institutional framework, they exist in tension with the constrictive and creative aspects of the institution. Judith A. Merkle offers the reader perspective on this contemporary experience in the church.

Part One

Foundations

1

Charism and the Christian Life: One Movement or Two?

What inspires the human spirit to hope for more? What nurtures men and women to risk to make the world a better place, even in small incremental ways? When we hear another speak or observe them act, what signals to us that they are in touch with something deeper in life, some special spirit which reaches into our innermost, and at times, inexpressible needs, hopes and dreams? We might say, “She has a gift for this.” or “He has a calling.” However we express it, we imply the source of what we observe comes from more than effort and practice, something easily proven through cause and effect; rather, it stems from a deeper intangible origin. In the Christian life we refer to this as a charism. Traditionally in the church, charism is a gift of the Holy Spirit given for the good of the church.

Pope Francis in an interview with La Civilta Cattolica remarks, “… the charism of religious people is like yeast: prophecy announces the spirit of the Gospel.”1 Pope Francis connects charism to that element of announcing the gospel that every Christian is able to offer through their person and behavior. Charism is more than a personality characteristic or style of acting; it is a capacity to put people in touch with the power of the Gospel. In contrast to “God talk” charism communicates more than words, it denotes the spark that attracts and the posture that evokes second thoughts about the meaning of our everyday encounters.

Charism is also recognized in the church as something which can be institutionalized, as the charism of a religious congregation. Today religious congregations are concerned that their charism is passed on to the next generation. Charism in this sense is the spirit and aims of each founding person, as well as how that charism has been interpreted through time by the members. As religious communities expand their associations to bond with people in various walks of life who share their values and mission; charism gains in importance as a link of identity with those who are married, single or belonging to other religious groups. The Church at Vatican II called each religious congregation to renewal through the examination of their charism. Charism is the marker which is faithfully accepted and retained as congregations adapt and renew for changed times.2 It is their compass in new times. Here charism is more than the personality style, an attitude or even the work of the founding person. Fundamental to an institutional charism is the following of Jesus Christ from whom the founding charism is inseparable. A congregational charism is a spiritual gestalt which is both unique and integral to the Spirit of the gospel. This deeper foundation makes it possible that a charism can be expressed in new ways for new times. This book will explore the interplay between charism and individuals, as well as charism and institution as an ongoing experience in the church.

Human Faith and Charism

Charism would not be a matter of interest to us unless it is related to our deeper search for meaning in life, and the quality of life in the institutions upon which we rely on our journey. At some point in their lives, most human beings ask, why was I born? What is the meaning of my life, of human life? In times of struggle, the more thoughtful search for the ultimate sense of life, a fulfillment which human sickness and death, injustice and war cannot destroy. St. Augustine refers to the restlessness of the human spirit as it wrestles with these questions, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O God.”3 Whether in the fourth century or in our lives today, a restlessness of the human spirit continues. In the secular world in which we live, we find that an encounter with charism involves a brush with mystery and the transcendent, two dimensions of life which secular society overlooks. In its public dimension, behavior which flows from charism points to something in its living that is not simply a religious legitimation of the values of the society in which it lives.4 It can direct attention to what is beyond the ordinary.

Theologian Edward Schillebeeckx suggests that the search for an ultimate meaning to our life is something which is often unconscious and indirect. We stumble upon this questioning in our everyday experience. For instance, good people see things amiss in the world and in the church and say, this should not be. Yet implicit in this “no” to how things are, is a “yes” to something better. People are disappointed and angry with the situation in the church of sexual abuse, lack of participation in the church community, attitudes which name religion as a nice extra to life but not really necessary. They listen to the news of unspeakable violence, continued unemployment, human trafficking, record-setting income inequality, dangers to the climate through human-created global warming, and vulnerable people struggling to survive. Yet despite the bad news, they work toward a solution. They get up in the morning and go to work, raise their families, do their ministry. They hold onto the belief that love is worth their effort. They act from this vision which fuels their energies.5 Implicit in their “no” is a “yes” to something more. As a gift of the Holy Spirit, charism is an expression of the wholeness of life which is envisioned in this “more,” a wholeness we both seek and possess in seed in our hopes and dreams. It is part of the “gift” of life, the “givenness” beyond our lights and shadows.

Both believers and nonbelievers have the experience of contrast, according to Schillebeeckx. To say no, instead of walking away from a situation, calls for faith. Faith implicitly places our confidence in a center beyond ourselves, and in a future we do not yet possess. Yet paradoxically an act of faith also confirms our deepest self in a new potential. Through faith we act on our hope for something better. We organize and plan for it. We work with others, we try new things. Yet ultimately all our efforts are based on a faith which at the level of modern life is unverifiable. We must take a risk, as while we sense we are on this earth for something more than the everyday measures of a good life, we find it hard to believe that Life takes us that seriously.

We observe and live this kind of human faith every day. Human faith is the act of risk by which we use our freedom to move out toward others in love. We know this faith and its opposite. We know when we live from it and when we fail to take on the challenges of life and relationships, and turn into ourselves in egotism. Psychologist Erik Erikson claims this core human faith is necessary to navigate successfully the various challenges of the life cycle.6 Through basic human faith we form relationships, create values and reach out to the problems of our life and communities.

Religious faith builds on human faith. For Christians, religious faith is the identification of the ultimate possibilities and limits of human life and the world with the revelation of Jesus Christ. While the challenges of human life are experienced and faced through human faith, religious faith interprets the process in relationship to God. Both believers and nonbelievers often desire the world to be a better place and share the experience of making it so. Believers, however, see the face of God in this experience and name the unfolding of a better history as God’s gift.7 Charism in the Christian community is an experience of religious faith, but charism is also a phenomenon animating human faith in society. Both human faith and religious faith call us to believe less in our littleness and more in our capacity for “more” and to resist the temptation to downsize our beliefs. Religious faith calls us to the audacious hope and certainty that God loves us.

Theologian Karl Rahner highlights the two-dimensional life of charism in his understanding of religious faith. Rahner describes religious faith in terms of this human search for meaning, not only of one’s life but of all of life. In his terms, the experience of faith in the Spirit of God is the positive and unconditional acceptance of one’s own existence as meaningful and open to a final fulfillment, “which we call God.”8 However, no one comes to religious faith simply through the drives of human life. Religious faith is a gift, not a personal achievement. Rahner describes that God communicates in grace within the structure of human knowing and loving, which is limited, yet open to what is ultimate. Human beings meet God in the experiences of everyday existence, and they learn to listen for the possible Self-manifestation of God, as communicating with them in human terms.9

Revelation, especially Scripture, brings awareness that the horizon encompassing human life is God who saves. Human life is where God abides and where God offers to humans God’s own self and the possibility of the free response of faith. Charism in its most fundamental meaning in the Christian life is this grace of breakthrough of the Spirit, the gift which makes the life of faith possible, but which shows itself in an enablement of the person and community in time, in the midst of church and society. For St. Paul, charis, which initially meant grace, later becomes the term for the grace of salvation. The charisma are the effects of charis, God’s gift of God’s Spirit. These are not exceptional gifts of the Spirit, but that Spirit poured out on all, as on Pentecost. (Joel 3:1-5; Acts 2:17-21).10 St. Paul reminds us that everyone has his or her charism, as the Spirit has given. He puts it most simply: “To each is given the manifestations of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Cor. 12:7).

What motivates us to take the risk of faith instead of egotism? Theologian Juan Luis Segundo suggests that such faith is built only in relationship with others. The community of those who share faith in Jesus Christ is the Church. Many today claim an individual faith in God but reject any notion of a need for a community of faith, the Church. Yet Segundo claims that it is only through others that we learn, even at a developmental level, the important “data” about life and its meaning. The life experience of learning how to learn is a point of reference for understanding the role of the Church in the life of faith. Central to life learning is the difficult task of deciding what is worth our effort. To enter into this process requires trust. We have to place faith in others in order to learn from them. We observe, consciously or unconsciously, how their values have brought them satisfaction in life. We learn from observing their actions.11 We take on the practices which form those values in our own lives. We try out what we have observe...

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Title
• Contents 
• Documents Cited and Abbreviations Used
• Introduction
• Part 1 Foundations
• 1 Charism and the Christian Life: One Movement or Two?
• 2 Charism and Institution: Max Weber, Alienation, and the Spirit in Christian Life
• 3 Beyond Our Lights and Shadows: Community and Transformation in the Church
• Part 2 Charism in the Church
• 4 Primary Charisms: Calling and Postmodern Society—A Church in Transition
• 5 The Restructuring of Ministry and Spirituality: Groups and Communities
• 6 Christian Identity and Charism: Beyond Ideology
• Part 3 Charism, Institution, and Society
• 7 Globalization: The Stirring of Charism in a New Church
• 8 A New Lens on Charism: Sacramentality, Mediation, and Community
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright